Sound vs VDI, which do you prefer

[msviking]

I know that overwhelmingly most detectors focus more on sound than VDIs, but being relatively new to the hobby (around 2 years) and using high end detectors (V3i and CTX3030) I really focus a lot on VDIs. Both machines are very good at pulling a good signal VDI out of garbage. For me I am able to pick more coins out with VDIs, curious what others experiences are?

Thanks
Robert in MS

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Howdy msvicking--

I am an audio man. With the ability to assign tones to specific VDI's on the V3i, aside from an occasional glance, I primarily view the screen during pinpointing. Best of luck and...

Happy Hunting!
Blind Squirrel

 

[Larry (IL)]

Going by the VDI is OK until you start getting some deep targets. That is when the VDI reliability and sometimes the VDI is lost but you still have the audio ID. Even after you lose the audio ID on really deep targets, you can still detect a target by the way the threshold is acting. There is a whole new world below VDI hunting.

VDI hunting will also fool you when you have multiple targets and good targets mixed with trash at all depths. Most of your best hunters will hunt by sound and use the VDI and other aids as tools to help ID a target.

The biggest mistake with VDI hunting is rejecting some very nice targets because the VDI numbers are not in your "range" of what you are looking for. Just look where gold coins and jewelry come in on the VDI scale......

 

[bradwheat777]

Definitely for me VDI is secondary. If I get a jumpy VDI and the audio has a high tone component I will usually pinpoint to hear how deep it is, if it is deep I am cutting a plug. I have also found a few coin spills that were clad but the VDI was not what I expected to dig, much lower...

 

[msviking]

I agree with all the responses and while I use VDIs quite often, I certainly use tones to the fullest advantage that I can. I just use the VDI on both my V3i and CTX3030 quite a lot as well and I feel it helps me find targets that I might otherwise miss if I was only focussing on tonal responses. Your responses are helpful.

Robert

 

[tab-nabit]

I decide by audio to dig or not. After I decided, then I may look at the display VDI and other info, but I have already decided by audio, so everything else after audio is secondary.
If I remember right, from back when I was swinging a 6000di/Pro Series-2, seems someone told me the audio and meter (display) are two different circuits. Reason why sometimes I heard deep signals and the meter didn't respond because the audio was the priority circuit.
I been with a few who rely on the display but I'll stick to audio and always use quality headphones. Old habit maybe.

 

[yazoo]

I'm in the same place Tad -nabits at audio first all else is secoundary as long as repeatable signals. Yazoo

 

[nw1886]

Yup, the audio and visual circuits are running beside one another and audio is king. (Larry said something hugely important on always staying in touch with what that threshold is doing......using it as an "alert" can take you to another level.)
Larry triggered a memory on an experience that ingrained this important tidbit home with me. A friend and I were searching an old football field/turned town park behind a re-purposed 1890's high school. We went in fully knowing that this place had been hammered by 40 years of decent tech and knew only "deep" or "random miss pocket" was going to be the rule for a find. (When going into one of these kinds of places, the biggest thing you have to realize is original/earlier dirt profile is more than likely compromised from smoothing, reworking to tear out running tracks,etc....and probably finding original dirt should be priority.) It was fall and looking out across the field you could tell where soil drainage patterns indicated where the loam was thicker, so I headed there first. As I did the initial adjustments I could tell depth wasn't going to be an issue and just did a quick survey of what was there....no easy targets at all of course and decided to radius out to see how big the "loam spot" actually was (as my bud was doing the fields perimeters). After realizing this area was fairly tight to where the grass was still green, I maxed settings to be at the point of just getting into over sensitive/slow recovery speed and began methodically massaging this "green spot" for about fifteen minutes not digging a thing. All signals were largish iron,iron bits,tabs.....and tiny nulls. Tired of only investigating,I decided to dig. Most of those nulls, "bit iron", "bit iron" with the tiniest "quick flash" 92's....turned out to be a pocket of Indian Head Pennies! Brought out around 10 of the most beautiful,smooth/detailed jade green jewels (that got me started on a set of these guys)!

This was all with a DFX (and can only imagine what would pop out if I went back with my V3i). Towards the end of our time there (and on our way back to the truck) we started complaining about "no silver anymore"......no sooner did the whinning stop, my next signal was a '42 quarter! Thank You detecting gods for listening and we had a good laugh....."there" was the random miss we had talked about earlier!

Audio is king.....and VDI's an important adjunct. I suspect audio is processed fastest by us all and having a machine that has the capability to adjust to our individual hearing for this is paramount. (Does not get better than the V3i for this......sorry VX3 and others.)

 

[cypearl]

In other words you can just cherry pick from what your detector says better cause when it is too deep is where you might find more convenient a deeper detector. I dig the constants and I hunt with audio.

 

[cadman_us]

For me, tone rules, VDI is used as possible confirmation of tone. If VDI does not confirm tone, I dig it anyway.

 

[Rob in (Ca)]

Last summer I was hunting on one of my soccer fields, got a real good sounding target, It came up on The screen as a Zinc, but the VDI number was all over the place, I almost walked away, but The Repeatable sound made me dig The Target, and to my surprise out pop's a Large Men's 14K Ring.

All jewelry regardless of size will always sound good on the audio, And sometimes The VDI numbers will dance all over the place. Making The hunter think that it's a junk Target because of The jumpy VDI numbers.


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[bik-il]

VDI is like the dashboard on your car.
It transmits a whole lot of information but you don't look at it all the time while cruising down the highway to see how fast you're going, since you are listening to the engine rpm and noticing the relative speed of the cars around you. You FEEL and HEAR first.
Having said that, I still have a hard time letting go of the VDI! I need the crutch for awhile yet.

HH

 

[tab-nabit]

Having said that, I still have a hard time letting go of the VDI! I need the crutch for awhile yet.

HH

Could spend a little time with the displayed covered up so you can't see it, of course after you get it set up to hunt first.

 

[pastfinder1]

After viewing all these posts about Audio vs visual Id, I recall reading in Jeff Foster's Digging deeper with the DFX, that the Signagraph is the most useful feature when it comes to visual ID. To clarify things I mean the bars and not the VDI numbers. I believe this still holds true concerning the V3i in a greater way. I have my screen resolution set at 2. (CONFIGURE>LIVE SEARCH SCREEN>SEARCH>SPECTRAGRAPH>RESOLUTION) where the bars width represents only 2 vdi's I also set the colors for the Icon ranges with the 95 vdi set for RED. after I set these parameters I noted that when the 22.5 and the 7.5 showed a green bar and the 2.5 showed a tall RED bar on the extreme right for a "quarter-like" tone with the vdi at +84 it turned out to be a steel bottlecap EVERY TIME. And one time when I got an alignment of 3 green bars just a little to the left of the extreme right and a vdi of 85 I was surprised to see a steel cap I got suspicious and sure enough there was a quarter just under it!! So it seems to me that focusing on the spectragraph is what to do after the tone with the VDI last. SIDE NOTE: I will dig it even if it flashes an alignment of the bars. Got a 1968 Kennedy half on a steep angle using this technique. What's your take??

 

[mypenneys]

Can someone provide a program that is set up for sound I've been struggling with the settings. I have the v3i and I am tired of the jumping all around with vdi numbers. My friend has a cheap detector but he has been detecting for 30 plus years and he goes buy sound. And he's got lots of gold rings and jewelry and coins to show for it. I am missing deep targets because of the junk in the ground throwing the vdi numbers off. Once in a while I'll get that deep target but usually it's just once sweep and it's gone..what am I doing wrong. My deepest target dime silver is only 9 inches.

 

[burlbark]

Can someone provide a program that is set up for sound I've been struggling with the settings. I have the v3i and I am tired of the jumping all around with vdi numbers. My friend has a cheap detector but he has been detecting for 30 plus years and he goes buy sound. And he's got lots of gold rings and jewelry and coins to show for it. I am missing deep targets because of the junk in the ground throwing the vdi numbers off. Once in a while I'll get that deep target but usually it's just once sweep and it's gone..what am I doing wrong. My deepest target dime silver is only 9 inches.

You are doing fine with dimes at 9"...... That is excellent depth. If you want to use audio as your primary for searching I would recommend mixed mode stereo. You will get ferrous in one ear and and positive vdi's in the other ear. In clean areas that little growl or ferrous purr causes me to stop and check out the signal a little better and has resulted in my deep silver finds doubling if not tripling.

In trashy areas the vdi screen acts like the ctx3030,s target trace showing me the ferrous and the non-ferrous along with accompanying audio with both coming across at the same time or nearly so. I dont know if I will use another program even again.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Mypenneys,

Hunting by sound is not a choice of settings but a learned art............... experience. If you want to accelerate your learning curve, you can put a piece of tape on your display but that would be pretty silly. Listen to what the detector is telling you and then confirm that info with the display and you will soon catch on. The more years you hunt, the better you will get..

 

[Rob (IL)]

Listen to Larry, he kills me every time we detect together.

 

[NormS]

I am just starting to hunt in the Hi Pro mode and been very successful so far. As for myself I hunt by tone 90% of the time. I rarely look at the vdi. I need to practice on setting up different tones for the vdi but I rarely look at it so I am in no hurry to do so. I picked up several dimes in an area with mixed signals today but stayed with the good tone and once I plucked the dime the other signals for the most part went away.

$80.22 plus one ring in 21 days of hunting this year. I am still in disbelief how good this V3i is. I pulled out $2.52 in an area 25'x40' today and believe me I had hunted this area 4 times with my ATP and all of the coins in the area had been there awhile. They were very dirty and older clad from 1965 to 1977.